EAST LANSING – Mark Dantonio went into the off-season saying in December that he would not make any changes to Michigan State’s coaching staff.

There have been plenty of alterations, however. And Mark Staten and Sheldon White are the latest to receive promotions in the reshuffling.

Dantonio announced offensive line coach Staten as the Spartans’ new recruiting coordinator that comes with a new title of assistant head coach. White, who was a program consultant last year after being fired by the Detroit Lions, is now MSU’s director of player personnel.

The 46-year-old Staten interviewed for the head coaching position at Division II Northern Michigan earlier this year before withdrawing his name from consideration. He has been with Dantonio since arriving at MSU 11 years ago, first as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator, as well as the three previous seasons at Cincinnati.

Staten said Dantonio told him in early February that he would be taking over the recruiting duties again. His new title was announced to the staff last week, he said.

“It’s just going back to what I came in doing,” Staten said. “And then with the associate head coach title, it’s trying to help Coach D with some of the burden and taking that off of his shoulders. … Loyalty’s big with him. He knows he can trust me, and he knows that we’re like-minded people and we’ll do it the right way.”

The 52-year-old White joined Dantonio’s staff as a program consultant last fall after spending more than two decades in the NFL. That included six seasons as a player with three teams, including Detroit, and then 19 years in various roles with the Lions.

The Dayton, Ohio, native, who, like Staten, played college ball at Miami (Ohio), progressed from a scout for the Lions in 1997 to director of pro personnel in 2000 to vice president of pro personnel in 2009. White also was Detroit’s interim general manager for three months after the firing of his mentor Martin Mayhew before the Ford family hired Bob Quinn to run the Lions in January 2016. Quinn fired White a month later.

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Michigan State football players are working to put behind last year's struggles and off-season turmoil.
Chris Solari/DFP

In his new role at MSU, White expects to help determine where the Spartans’ players are in their development and evaluate their progress throughout their time on campus.

“What I was doing with Coach (Dantonio) was getting a view of every area,” White said of his first year at MSU. “So he kept putting me with different groups, adding me to groups – not being responsible for them, but being a part of those groups – and just being able to see the whole picture of the college game. … It was being able to see the whole big picture, from the outside looking in. Actually, I’m going into an assignment now.”

Staten and White’s new duties were somewhat necessary after Dantonio opted in late May to not renew the contract of Curtis Blackwell, the football program’s director of college advancement and performance and someone who played a key role in recruiting strategy since 2013. MSU Police had issued an arrest warrant for Blackwell during the investigation into a Jan. 16 sexual assault case involving three MSU players. Blackwell was not charged by the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office. The players – Josh King, Donnie Corley and Demetric Vance – all were charged in the alleged sexual assault and are awaiting preliminary hearings later this month.

Dantonio said after MSU’s spring scrimmage on April 1 that he reassigned Mark Snyder from linebackers to coaching defensive ends and that co-defensive coordinator Mike Tressel once again has reassumed duties coaching linebackers. Former defensive line coach Ron Burton continues to coach just defensive tackles. Co-defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett also will retain the associate head coach title.